After-Party
by FoxOnPie
Summary: KaeMaki Week Day 3: Post-game. Kaede and her friends escaped the Killing Game, but now she has one last thing to take care of.


The first thing Kaede thinks when she sees the house is that it's far bigger than she thought it'd be. How big did she expect it to be, though? Her past life couldn't exactly serve as a frame of reference, so in all likelihood, she was only thinking it as a response to her own nervousness.

"Don't think you can use that as an excuse, though," Maki said to her.

"Use what as an excuse?" Kaede asked.

"Just because it's a big house doesn't mean you're allowed to chicken out at the very end. We came all the way here, so we need to finish this."

"I know, it's just-you're right. You're always-well, that's not true, but you're right a good amount of the time. Gotta do what I gotta do, so let's go!"

Filled with renewed resolve, Kaede stepped towards the door, no longer wanting anything to stop her. The same apparently couldn't be said for Maki, who hadn't taken a step away from where she was standing.

"Maki?"

"On second thought, this is a bad idea. Maybe we should wait another day or two or infinity," Maki said.

"I think we'd be dead with the last one," Kaede said.

"Maybe that wouldn't be so bad."

Kaede ran over to Maki and grabbed her hand, pouting the entire time. She then started physically dragging Maki over to the door, but a combination of Maki's surprising strength and her disappointing lack of strength made it a rather arduous process.

"What happened to all that crap you were just telling me about being brave?" Kaede asked.

"I never said I had to follow my own advice," Maki said.

"Well I'm saying you do!"

"I don't have to be subservient when we're not by ourselves."

"Come on! You're not allowed to be more nervous about this than me!"

"I beg to differ."

Kaede tried to say something else to Maki, but she stopped herself when she heard a noise. It was the sound of a door. The sound of a door opening. The sound of the door to the house opening. Any semblance of choice was now completely out of their hands, and the anxious expression on Maki's face told Kaede that she had a perfect understanding of this.

The door was fully open, and standing in the doorway was a teenage girl, roughly the same age as Kaede. She had blonde hair with a clump of strands sticking up like an antenna, just like Kaede, a skinny figure with a large chest, just like Kaede, and an utterly dumbstruck look on her face, one that looked exactly like the face Kaede saw every day in the mirror.

"Oh, um, hello. Sorry to drop in uninvited, but the thing is, well, I'm pretty sure I'm your sister?" Kaede said, making what should have been a clear statement into an awkward question. "I know this is pretty strange-"

"{Oh! My! God! It's you! It's really you!}" Kaede's sister said, for some reason choosing to do so in perfect English.

"Wh-What?"

"She's surprised that it's you. I think. I wasn't made to know a lot of English." Maki said.

"{I can't believe you're really here! I thought I'd never see you again, Sakisayasarakarazakayayachako!}"

"'Sakisaya'-what?!" Kaede shouted. "Is that my name?! I don't want that to be my name!"

She really didn't.

"{Where have you been this whole time, Sakisayasarakarazakayayachako?! Everyone thought you were dead after the Maralalapapayouchikaka Gang attacked the town to take control of the cinnamon mines! How did you escape?!}"

"Um, Maki-"

"I have no idea what the hell she's saying. I think your sister's a mental patient," Maki said.

"I-Ai amu solli, batto Ai dyu natto, um, hold on-kyan yu prease tly andu-no, what am I even-"

As Kaede kept trying to stumble her way through an absolutely terrible language that was trying to pass itself off as English, her sister, much to her surprise, started laughing a laugh that was the exact same kind of laugh she tended to laugh.

"Oh my God, I can't-I can't do it anymore!" Kaede's sister exclaimed. "I-I actually got you thinking your name was-was whatever the hell I said it was! That's too much! You should see the look on your face! Wait, let me show it to you… did you get it? I hope you did, 'cause it was priceless!"

"Kaede, can I kill her?" Maki asked.

"No! Not right now, anyway," Kaede said. "Listen-" Whatever Kaede planned on saying next vanished from her head as her sister pulled her in for a hug.

"You don't remember it, but my name is Erika. I'm really happy to see you again, Kaede."

Kaede had no words. She didn't know anything that could do it justice, nor did she have the strength to do anything in the area of her face outside of holding back her own tears. For now, all she could do was hug Erika back.

* * *

After a few moments of silence, Erika led Kaede into the house, Maki following right behind them. Kaede couldn't help but smile at how her twin even walked the same way as her.

"I'm gonna get some refreshments," Erika said. "You two stay here and get settled, okay?"

"O-Okay," Kaede said with a hiccup. Maki just nodded her head before Erika ran off.

The two girls took the alone time to look around the living room of Erika's home. Very spacious, decorated with Western furniture, something Kaede enjoyed. A grand piano stood in the corner of the room, the sunlight shining upon it while Kaede stared at it with mixed emotions. All around the walls were pictures of Kaede and Erika when they were younger-she couldn't help but smile at how intensely Maki was staring at them. The two of them were together in most of them, but while Erika was always smiling, Kaede always had a depressed look on her face. She understood why that was, but it still didn't feel good to look at.

"How are you feeling?" Maki asked.

"I-I'm not really sure," Kaede said. "I know that this is supposed to be super emotional, but it's really hard to get like that. I only even knew I had a sister because of that trick Tsumugi tried to pull. I _want_ to feel like this is the greatest thing to ever happen to me, but that's easier said than done."

"You don't need to rush it, Kaede. Something like this is going to take time, but it'll be okay, and I'll be with you every step of the way."

"You're too good for me."

" _You're_ too good for _me_."

"Yeah, I know."

A loud cough snapped the two out of their reverie. Erika had returned and set a tray of assorted items down on the coffee table. Said items were tea bags, cups filled with hot water, and what appeared to be Greek yogurt-Kaede's favorite.

"I didn't know what to do for the tea, so I just got everything I had," Erika said.

"If there's oolong, Maki would love that," Kaede said as she and Maki sat down.

"Not as much as she loves you, I bet." Maki squeezed a bag of oolong tea with enough force to tear it apart. "What? Aren't you two dating?"

"Y-Yes, but how do _you_ know that?" Maki asked.

"Um, I was watching all the stuff you guys did, remember? It'd be pretty hard to miss all the goo goo eyes and kissy faces-some of which had actual kissing-and casual butt glances you two were throwing at each other. It'd also be pretty hard to miss the fact that you two haven't stopped holding hands since you showed up."

Kaede looked down between herself and Maki. Sure enough, the two of them were still holding onto each other's hand.

"To be fair about the other stuff, Maki has a really cute butt," Kaede said.

"Do you want to die?" Maki asked with an intense glare.

"Ah! She said it! She said it!" Erika said with a laugh. "But seriously, though, I'm glad that you managed to get _something_ good out of that crap."

"Me, too," Kaede said. "It was thanks to everyone's support… and sacrifices that some of us were able to escape at all. Everyone always looked to me for guidance, but if I'm being honest, it was only because of them that I was able to be so strong." Kaede squeezed Maki's hand. "Some people contributed to that more than others, but you get the idea."

"Speaking of which, where's the rest of the group?"

"We wanted this to be private, so we sent them off elsewhere," Maki said.

"Shuichi and Himiko are on a date downtown, Tenko is exercising with Kaito to help get his body back in shape, and Rantaro-actually, he's the only one doing work. He's still working with the police on interrogating Tsumugi about the locations of her fellow cultists. No rest for the wicked, I suppose," Kaede said.

"I'm just glad you managed to get out of there with only eight people dead. That probably sounds really terrible, but those monsters usually get away with killing a lot more," Erika said.

"It's fine. We're all just trying to adjust to everything. The important thing is that we managed to stick together and beat Tsumugi's game, after all!"

Kaede pumped her fist before Maki smiled at her and kissed her on the cheek. Across the coffee table, Erika was looking at everything with another familiar dumbstruck expression.

"This is so weird," Erika said. "This whole situation is weird, but seeing you act like this is all-I don't even know."

"Why would it be… oh, right," Maki said with a downcast expression.

"Right, the thing about all of our personalities being changed," Kaede said. "It's good to know that Tsumugi lied about us all willingly joining the Killing Game, but it's still crazy to think about how the me in my head is different from the me who actually lived in the world."

"Understatement of the year," Erika said. "Growing up with you was such a huge pain in the ass. No matter what Mom, Dad and I tried to do, you'd always just walk around all mopey, even when there was nothing to mope about! You said that you didn't like or trust people, but you never even let us try and change your mind. Remembering how much of a handful you were is giving me a migraine."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"I always thought you hated me, too," Erika cut in.

"What?"

"You thought she hated you?" Maki asked.

"Mom and Dad, they just gave up on you at some point, saw you nothing more than a lost cause," Erika said. "I was the only one who kept trying to make you like, well, anything, but nothing worked. No matter how hard I tried, you always rejected me. I figured it was because you hated all the attention I got. Mom and Dad always doted on me for getting good grades, being good at cooking, and especially for how great I was at the piano."

 _Wait, what? Piano? Her?_ Those were a few of the questions running through Kaede's head.

"We-We don't know everything about the Team Danganronpa cult, but we do know that when they brainwash people, their new personalities are based on someone they really want to be. You became the Super Duper High School Pianist and someone who tries to help everyone out; you-you made yourself be like me. You always acted like you didn't care about anything, but deep down, you actually didn't hate me. Even though you were fighting for your life day after day, I couldn't stop myself from being happy to know that you cared about me."

Erika started crying. Kaede always pictured herself as an ugly crier, but she never thought that it was this bad. So bad, in fact, that she had to let go of Maki's hand and essentially jump over the coffee table to hug Erika.

"I'm sorry. I'm really, really sorry," Kaede said. "I know that it doesn't mean much to apologize for a me that I can't remember, but if the old me was really so mopey that she'd let her own sister think she hated her, then the old me had to be a Super Duper High School Moron. I don't know when we'll get our memories back, but when we do, I'll make up for everything I couldn't say. That's a promise, Erika."

"I-It better be." Sniffling noises came out of Erika as the hug came to a close.

"Now, then! How about we play a duet on that piano? Might be fun to see if my fake talent can measure up to your real talent."

"Y-Yeah! That'd be great!"

Erika gave Kaede another hug before running off towards the piano. Kaede took a few steps towards it, but then turned back to run over to Maki and give her a kiss.

"Thanks for being here with me," Kaede said.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Maki said. "Now hurry and go knock me dead."

"I'll do my best." Kaede turned around and ran back towards Erika and the piano. With any luck, this was something she'd be able to do every day for the rest of her life.

* * *

 **So here's a late submission for KaeMaki week. Probably could have put more of the pairing in here, as it ended being mainly tacked onto a story about Kaede meeting her definitely non-existent sister, but hey, if you can add yuri to a story, why not seize the opportunity? Am I right, or am I right?**


End file.
